The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Are You Ready for BBW Barbie?

Posted on | December 28, 2013 | 43 Comments

They should call her “Belinda,” because all girls named “Belinda” are fat. There — that’s the only joke I have for this story:

A controversy is brewing over a request to remake Barbie in way contrary to the iconic image so many girls knew growing up.
Plus-Size-Modeling.com is suggesting Mattel create a plus-size Barbie. While some say more realistic curves would be a better role model for girls, others say an overly large Barbie would be an unhealthy example.
Plus Size Modeling conducted a poll on its Facebook page on Dec. 18 asking, “Should toy companies start making Plus Sized Barbie dolls?” In just under two weeks, a picture of the poll has received over 40,000 likes, 5,000 comments and 2,700 shares.
“Sure, but Barbie doesn’t need a double chin,” one comment said. “You can be ‘plus size’ w/o the double chin. They could make a ‘thick’ Barbie.”
“Portraying Barbie as a realistic woman with real curves is a very good idea and would send the right message to young girls about self-esteem,” another comment said. “Making a morbidly obese Barbie is BAD!!”
Then there’s this opinion:
“Okay I honestly don’t think how a Barbie looks affects a child’s self-esteem. When I was little I didn’t wanna look like Barbie. Lol. I didn’t think about my looks at all I just wanted to play…”

I dunno. If “Plus-Size Barbie” is a success, why not “DTF Middle-Aged Cougar Barbie”? “Crack Whore Street Walker Barbie”?

(Hat-tip: Modern Comments on Twitter.)

 

Category: Culture

Comments

43 Responses to “Are You Ready for BBW Barbie?”

  1. Richard McEnroe
    December 28th, 2013 @ 9:20 pm

    Do not show this to Collins…

  2. ChandlersGhost
    December 28th, 2013 @ 9:21 pm

    If Plus-Size-Modeling wants to make a fat Barbie, what’s stopping them from doing it on their own dime?

  3. Crying wolf or claiming everyone is gay (I am starting to see a pattern) | Batshit Crazy News
    December 28th, 2013 @ 9:35 pm

    […] “gay” community to describe straight women who like to hang around homosexual men.  TOM notes this.  Maybe that fag hag role playing can be done by Plus Sized […]

  4. Dianna Deeley
    December 28th, 2013 @ 9:50 pm

    Trademark? Copyright? I am reasonably certain Mattel would fight for “Barbie” and her image. So…it’s not all that simple.

  5. ChandlersGhost
    December 28th, 2013 @ 9:56 pm

    That’s not the point. If there’s a profitable niche market for a plus-size glamor doll, why aren’t they seizing the opportunity?

  6. JeffWeimer
    December 28th, 2013 @ 9:59 pm

    Did someone say “Cougar Barbie”?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07wB7sUhgAA

  7. ChandlersGhost
    December 28th, 2013 @ 10:03 pm

    That’s awesome. The Journey is what does it.

  8. jakee308
    December 28th, 2013 @ 10:05 pm

    They could limit sales to certain . . . areas of the country.

    IYKWIMAITTYD.

    yeah THOSE places.

  9. jakee308
    December 28th, 2013 @ 10:08 pm

    The boobs landing on the floor is what does it.

    Hi effing larious.

  10. Modern Comments
    December 28th, 2013 @ 10:11 pm

    Thanks for the hat tip, for starters.

    Also, if you go to the Plus-Sized Modeling website, their models, while plus-sized, aren’t as big and beefy as the proposed Barbie doll so I find it rather interested they’d promote a doll like that.

  11. Christy Waters
    December 28th, 2013 @ 10:44 pm

    If she had a couple more chins and some crust on her neck, she could marketed as Honey Boo Boo’s mom.

  12. K-Bob
    December 28th, 2013 @ 11:23 pm

    We’re waiting for Wal-Mart Barbie to come out. Then we can git ’em for all the kids here in the trailer park.

  13. Just Me
    December 28th, 2013 @ 11:44 pm

    Tonner Doll Company created a plus-sized doll based on the real-life plus-sized model Emme. I might have bought one except for Emme’s pro-abortion stance. He’s also used the same mold for one of Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters, the character Mama Morton (from the movie, Chicago, I think, brain not working this late at night) and Mrs. Claus.

  14. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 29th, 2013 @ 12:14 am

    http://batshitcrazynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/8412390023_867a8810b4_z.jpg This is even scarier…

  15. Proof
    December 29th, 2013 @ 12:15 am

    Malibu Thunder Thighs?

  16. ChandlersGhost
    December 29th, 2013 @ 12:18 am

    Blaugggh EBL! You’re killing me! 🙂

  17. Alessandra
    December 29th, 2013 @ 1:42 am

    “Portraying Barbie as a realistic woman with real curves is a very good
    idea and would send the right message to young girls about self-esteem,”
    another comment said. “Making a morbidly obese Barbie is BAD!!”
    ================
    Likewise for just fat (bad). Normal weight is fine though.
    If we could get less anorexic models (on magazines and runways), that would even be better.

  18. Zohydro
    December 29th, 2013 @ 1:53 am

    The world would be different place today if Karen Carpenter had eaten that sammich instead of Mama Cass…

  19. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 29th, 2013 @ 2:00 am

    You know Collins too well…

  20. Alessandra
    December 29th, 2013 @ 2:07 am

    Yep. They both needed help with their food issues (meaning other more profound psychological issues). I played a LOT with Barbie dolls, and I don’t recall ever thinking that she was something I would need to look like. But I did grow up in an environment intensely obsessed about thinness and that is what was really unhealthy. Not the doll, just basically every adult and peer around me was obsessed. Quite, quite crazy. Tremendous emphasis on appearance, very little on much more important things inside.

  21. jakee308
    December 29th, 2013 @ 2:17 am

    Thought I’d check in here as i’m getting comment moderation from all kinds of different sites and for benign comments. who sets the moderation level? the site owner or disqus?

  22. jakee308
    December 29th, 2013 @ 2:18 am

    She WISHES she looked that good.

  23. Adjoran
    December 29th, 2013 @ 2:47 am

    We’ve already got “Crack Whore Street Walker Barbie” – Paris Hilton.

  24. Nan
    December 29th, 2013 @ 3:06 am

    We didn’t have Barbie. Except the one that slipped past the censor because the giver didn’t know of the Barbie ban. I think she bought a 6-pack because six little girls received the same Barbie for Christmas that year, one of the old bitch-face ones. By the time I became aware of Barbie, she had become happy cheerleader Barbie and unrecognizable to me. I learned that my doll was a Barbie when my mom gave me a copy of Smithsonian magazine with a Barbie foldout cover, on the inside of which were depicted many Barbies, including the doll I had. Who knew?

  25. archonix
    December 29th, 2013 @ 8:51 am

    It’s always extremes with these people. Oh she’s too thin, lets make her too fat instead!

    Why don’t they just make “average size barbie”?

  26. tlk244182
    December 29th, 2013 @ 8:58 am

    site owner I believe, but I’m the wrong guy to ask. I say all kinds of stuff on disqus no-problem.

  27. Joe Dokes
    December 29th, 2013 @ 9:22 am

    I know it’s been around for some time…about as long as feminazis have, oddly enough…but could the alleged influence of Barbies on girls’ self-images be more overblown hype?

    I played with the Six Million Dollar Man, army men, Mego superheroes, monster models and the original foot-tall G.I. Joe. But I never wanted to emulate any of them when I grew up nor felt from any corner that I was seriously expected to.

  28. Matthew W
    December 29th, 2013 @ 9:40 am

    GI Joe: Now with :Kung Fu grip !”

    What a difference.
    The original Joe had a TRIGGER finger !!!!

  29. Are You Ready for BBW Barbie? : The Other McCain | Dead Citizen's Rights Society
    December 29th, 2013 @ 10:43 am

    […] Are You Ready for BBW Barbie? : The Other McCain. […]

  30. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 29th, 2013 @ 11:48 am

    http://batshitcrazynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/kathy_griffin_no_makeup_runyun_canyon.jpgWaking up to this after a night out on the town would kill you…

  31. Joe Dokes
    December 29th, 2013 @ 12:11 pm

    Had both. In fact I dimly recall a Joe with a clear mechanical arm but I’m prolly confusing it with Steve Austin’s.

  32. ChandlersGhost
    December 29th, 2013 @ 12:27 pm

    The anti Rule 5.

  33. Alessandra
    December 29th, 2013 @ 12:37 pm

    I think it’s just one more expression of that pressure. So if you aren’t in an obsessed with thinness environment, it doesn’t matter. If you are, well it’s just another message in that sense. Not long ago, there was an Internet article with a famous pinup from the 40s, normal body. You should have seen the comments from young men. All of them saying nasty things about how fat she was! I mean, talking about her as if she was like this fat Barbie above! And she was slim, she just wasn’t anorexic like all these super models of today. So you see, this stuff gets into people’s minds, and that’s when it becomes toxic. The doll herself didn’t start it, but she comes to represent it.

  34. robcrawford2
    December 29th, 2013 @ 12:54 pm

    They should make a heterosexual Ken first.

  35. Quartermaster
    December 29th, 2013 @ 4:01 pm

    That’s a bridge much too far. Ken will always be a metrosexual.

  36. Quartermaster
    December 29th, 2013 @ 4:03 pm

    Disqus is being abused by a number of sites. NRO is one of the worst sites I’ve been to. AmSpec is getting things in hand. I actually posted the word “libtard” without going into moderation hell. I found saying “Jew” can send you to moderation hell at NRO.

  37. Quartermaster
    December 29th, 2013 @ 4:07 pm

    I like those 40s and 50s era pinups meself. I also married a girl built that way. Boys and young men these are much too affected by the gays that have determined a chick should look like a 10 year old boy with boobs glued on. My son, at 35, has a mild case of the problem.

  38. Alessandra
    December 29th, 2013 @ 4:17 pm

    Not when I was playing with my dolls! They made a beautiful couple! (ah… childhood!)

  39. DNC’s Email Warns of Obama Impeachment and Weekend Links
    December 29th, 2013 @ 7:20 pm

    […] Other McCain has many good blog posts up including this one by Stacy on “Are You Ready for BBW […]

  40. K-Bob
    December 29th, 2013 @ 8:01 pm

    SIte owner can plug in a filter that traps certain words, but those are error-prone. Moderation of most “service” type comment platforms is through a dashboard provided by the platform developers (and/or per-post tools that only mods can see).

    Small sites (meaning relatively few commenters) can get by with a handful of mods. Huge sites have to have a large number of mods, and also be careful about closing comments after a cutoff date.

    The more comments to police, the more the mods depend on people flagging stuff. So flagging is important, even at a comment swamp like NRO and Breitbart.

    For example, the Telegraph.uk blog mods manage to keep reasonable control even when one blog post can typically generate over 2500 comments. I’ve found them to be lenient enough to allow rigorous debate.

  41. K-Bob
    December 29th, 2013 @ 8:03 pm

    Hah!

  42. K-Bob
    December 29th, 2013 @ 8:05 pm

    You’d need viagra just to get up and walk away.

  43. Alessandra
    December 30th, 2013 @ 4:59 am

    who is this supposed to be?